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iG defeats LGD and proceeds to Grand Final

LGD and iG are the best two Chinese teams at The International. Both winning their preliminary group have never met before in the tournament. Now they battle for the spot in the grand final of The International 2012.

After the oh so passive games of LGD against Na'Vi, where the tension mainly came from the waiting for the next kill and the emotions, iG and LGD played the first map much more aggressive and with much more kills than previously.

As they had never met before, the picks of map one were pretty standard, playing a Morphling carry against Lone Druid carry. Who would be winning this time?

Seeing more kills did not mean worse play. It was clearly visible that this was a game of two of the three best teams of the world. And playing Morphling with a Satanic is rarely seen either. Having around 80 kills in a game of The International just feels great and seeing iG actually showing a ton of emotions after the first win feels even better. Finally, the Chinese leave standard mode.

Finally a counter-pick against Morphling. Don't try to outfarm him, try to outplay him! Lion is meant to give extra disable and extra nuking power. LGD needs to pull something off after losing three games in a row. Before that, LGD was undefeatable for 19 consecutive games.

At the same time, Broodmother is a great anti-pick against Anti-Mage and Invoker. As soon as she gets her Orchid's: Long time silence is basically all you want to have. The game was basically the opposite of the previous game: Barely 20 kills after almost 40 minutes. That Anti-Mage is fat: Level 22 against a level 9 Crystal Maiden? Sounds fair!

Okay, LGD is back on track, now with a 20-3 map stats during the whole International. But is that a good way to show that you are back on the winning streak by scoring the first kill by 21 minutes? I'm still waiting on either of the teams pick more risky. Sure you don't want to risk anything if $100,000 USD are in the pot for a single map, but playing predictable is not going to help either.

iG has the advantage from the very beginning on. But in the usual unrisky way, they prefer to keep farming and win as soon as the advantage is big like the Titanic. Anyway: It's iG, not LGD to contest Na'Vi in the grand final. Without upper bracket advantage - full best-of-five.